Show us some birds...56

Common Stonechat

Serdar and Charles
Two good sets - particularly like:

Serdar - pic 3 (whatever bird this is!) the texture detail in the feather, movement, setting - really like the whole piece.

Charles - pic 5 of the avocet great detail, natural capture, nice reflection in the water and love the composition.

Congrats both   

As an aside - posted those kingfisher pics the other day when was struggling with light issues. Earlier today out to go and see somebody drove past this stream, but in a section which is well lit away from this tunnel of trees and guess what - not just that kingfisher sitting there but his mate also!!!! No camera, no time and driving past - how frustrated was I .

Graham

Edited by Hols52 - 01 July 2012 at 04:14

@Serdar you continue to inspire.   Well done.


Here are a few of mine from today. taken with A77 using the 70-400mmG.

1 Baby Barn Swallows



2



3.mature Barn Swallow



4. Wilson's snipe



5. American Avocet



6. Male yellow warbler



C&C is always welcome.


Charles

Edited by mambo - 01 July 2012 at 02:17

stresskiller
Thanks for the comment - as for software I simply use the software that came with the A77 - PMB. All my pictures are just out of the camera and then I use thePMB to crop.

Graham

For a while I have ben trying to find a kingfisher to capture. Today gave me my first opprtunity - unfortunately the stream I found this lovely bird in is heavily wooded on both sides - in fact it resembles a strem running through a tunnel of trees! So light was an issue, as was the constantly dabbling effect created by all the leaves - so there are the excuses out the way. Here are the better results - all taken with A77 and 70-400G, was using aperture priority at 5.6 and ISO mostly 200 with some also at 400. I was about 15 yards from the bird while he was on his branch. Deliberately tried to keep ISO as low as I could.

Pic 1 - Looking up - shutter 1/50 ISO 200




Pic 2 - Looking down - shutter 1/200 ISO 400




Pic 3 - Looking left - shutter 1/50 ISO 200




Pic 4 - Looking right - shutter 1/60 ISO 200



Pic 5 - Surveying - shutter 1/50 ISO 200



I did try adjusting exposure to +1 for some pics but found that "greened" the leaves etc too much and spoilt the picture. Any comments and advice as to how to achieve better in such light would be great.

But what I do know was the buzz that this beautiful bird gave me - just hope that next time we meet he might decide to fish in a part with more sun! These are definitely not the sharpest I have posted on here but they have probably given me the greatest pleasure in capturing. It makes me aspire even more to what Gustav and others have shown us all on here

Graham





Edited by Hols52 - 29 June 2012 at 20:26

Osprey shots from Edwin B Forsythe NWR, Oceanville, NJ. Take with an A700 & Sigma 150-500 DG APO HSM.